The Beginning
by Jack Hawthorne
Summary: The story of how Jack Smith joined the Hellsing Organisation. Rewritten. May change to M later. Please R
1. Chapter 1

This was my first story here, and consequently lacked a proper plot ^^ I have now thought out one for it, and have rewritten it slightly to fit ^^  
The story itself is hard to classify, and will contain multiple genres.

The original story was betaread by Lion in the Land, a really skilled author ^^ please give her stories a go if you like Hellsing ^^

DISCLAIMER: I dont own Jack Shit! Or, actually, I do own Jack Smith. But as of yet, nothing else. Now, get off my back, pesky lawyers.

A/N: This story uses the alternate universe I have detailed on my profile. You don`t have to, but it will be better if you check it out before reading this. You might become confused if you don`t. :D

Warning: Heavy swearing in various languages may occur. Also, gory battlescenes will occur. Would it have been a proper Hellsingfic without the latter?

* * *

"Sigh..." Jack sighed audibly. He was sitting in his train-cabin on his way to his English childhood home, Burntwood. As he was half English, half Norwegian and had spent roughly half his childhood in Norway and the rest in England; he had two hometowns. His mom, an old lady by now, had sent him yet another message on his cellphone, urging him to get home more quickly. Not only did she urge him, she tempted him with homemade sheep-in-cabbage too. Annoying by his moms constant messaging, yet salivating at the mere thought of sheep-in-cabbage, he replied that he was on the train and soon there.

_It wasn't my fault that I had to correct some of my students' tests before I left!_ _Sometimes, being a teacher sucks, _he thought. _Or on second thought... Maybe playing _Bioshock 2_ during in the time I was supposed to rate tests wasn't such a great idea. _

Shrugging, he settled deeper into the seat and tried to look out at the darkening landscape. But, since the lights were on in the train, the only thing he saw was his reflection in the glass. He was an okay looking man. His face was a bit thin, and the effect created by his goatee beard only increased that feeling. His hair was short, and both hair and beard were nicely trimmed. He didn`t like unkempt hair. His body was slimly built, and due to a high metabolism he was rather thin, even though he ate like a horse. However, he never trained, so he was rather weak. "Meaningless." Was his only excuse when people asked him why he didn`t train.  
For once, he wasn't in his customary lab-coat, which was the article of clothing he used the most, due to his job as a physics and chemistry teacher at a university. Instead, he was clad in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, covered by an old and worn leather jacket, which had been a gift from his father years ago. He really loved that jacket. Picking up a book from his backpack, Jack settled in to read a bit as the train continued its journey towards the small town.

"Alucard, Seras, you have a new mission." Integra said as the two vampires phased through the door to stand before her desk, as so often before, awaiting orders.  
"What mission, Sir?" Seras asked, curious to what kind of mission it was now. Paranormal activity had been rather scarce lately.  
"We have uncomfirmed reports of a vampire, presumably Nosferatu type, in a small village north of here. There has been sightings of a large number of ghouls, and we need to eliminate the source as quickly as possible. Here is the report. It has every detail you need."  
As if they needed to be told this. By now, even Seras was so used to this that she could just get the report then begone. However, after a few incidents of Alucard misinterpretating such orders, by killing targets that was instead intended to be guarded, this had become a formality that was required. Doubtlessly, Alucard had enjoyed killing those target, having probably misinterpretated the orders on purpose, so the procedure was actually necessary too.  
"Oh, and also, most of the ghouls are concentrated on the graveyards. Therefore, most of the humans are still alive, and as such, you will only be using small arms for this mission."  
"Oh. Darn." Seras simply said. She had grown rather fond of her Harkonnen cannon, but she knew better than to defy Integras orders. She might be 50 years old, but she was just as strict as she had been when Seras first joined Hellsing, some thirty-five odd years ago.  
Of course, this did not prevent Seras from carrying the gun with her. As a powerful Nosferatu, she was gifted with the ability to store a certain amount of mass in a sort of "pocket-space", just as Alucard could. Just for fun, Seras sometimes pulled her Harkonnen out of her cleavage infront of new recruits, just to see their faces. It was priceless, every single time.  
Within moments, they were ready to go, just stopping to let Seras pick up a large Desert Eagle, which was the smallest gun she could find.

As Jack got off the train, the usual bustle of the train-station hit him. He picked up his suitcase and went straight for the cab-call center. He was not about to waste time when there was sheep-in-cabbage cooking at home.

"One ride to Burntwood, number 34 Harbour road, please." He asked the employee, who was busily doing…something, on the computer. He saw her slightly vacant look and figured that she wasn`t exactly in danger of over-working herself. He slammed his palm on the table, startling her, then repeated the question with a grin.

"Oh. Okay, here you go." She said, handing him a ticket after he had handed over the money. He grinned, turned around, and started walking towards the exit.

"Ohhff, sorry!" Jack apologized as he brushed a little bit close to a tall man clad in a curious red coat, then continued on.

Alucard grumbled. He hated crowded places. Just now, some bumbling fool had bumped into him. At least this one had the courtesy of apologizing.

"Remember Master, no killing!" Seras unnecessarily reminded him.

He just grumbled a bit more. _Why the hell did we have to take the train? _he asked himself. _Oh, wait. It was probably because I startled Police Girl during that target-practice session, so that she missed and blew up the chopper…._ He chuckled at the memory. Okay, it was incredibly annoying to use public transport, but it had been worth it.

"Where was the infestation again…?" Seras asked, blushing slightly in embarrassment that she had forgotten where they were going.

Alucard chuckled, and then answered. "Burntwood."

"Mornin` buddy!" Jack cheerfully greeted the cab-driver.

"Where are you going? Got a ticket?" he asked, leaning over the seat to take a look at his newest passenger.

" `ere you go!" Jack said, fishing the ticket out of a pocket and handing it to the man.

"Burntwood, eh? Heard there's some kind of weird silence over the town now. No messages have come out for a couple of days. And since it's so small, there has been no reason to travel there for anyone before now." The cab-driver said as he fired up the engine, trying to get a conversation going.  
"Oh? I suppose we'll be the first then. I wonder what's happened. But, if you'll excuse me, I`m kinda tired, so I'll go to sleep now," Jack answered. As said, so done, and Jack was soon sleeping soundly in the back seat as the cab continued towards the small town.

When he awoke, the taxi had parked right outside the house. It was semi-large and a rather nice house, but pretty old. It sat right by the waterfront, and Jack remembered taking a dip in the rather cold water in the summer to cool himself off.

"Thanks, buddy," he said to the driver as he exited the car. He fetched his baggage from the trunk and walked towards the house as the cab drove off. Jack tried to open the door, but was perplexed when he found that it was locked.

"Locked? This door is never locked when someone is home..." he mumbled to himself. Jack fished up the spare key to the house from a nearby potted plant and let himself in. Once inside, he promptly dropped the baggage on the floor. There was a faint smell of blood in the air, the sickly sweet smell drifting around in the air.

"Mom, dad..." Jack whispered, afraid that something might have happened to them. Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering rang through the house, shocking Jack back to reality. He immediately assumed that burglars had somehow broken into the house, locked the door so that they wouldn't be interrupted, then somehow hurt Jacks parents, which explained the smell of blood. _No fucking way burglars are gonna get away with this..._ he though angrily. As silently as he could, he sneaked his way into his old childhood room. Jumping up on the bed, taking care to avoid the creaky spots, he spotted the item he wanted. It was a katana, originally intended for display. But, since it was long, heavy and very, very sharp, it would work perfectly.

Silently, he slid the weapon from its scabbard and stalked out of the room, intending to go burglar-hunting. He quietly walked past the kitchen after checking that it was clear, then moved on towards the living-room. What he found there was...shocking, to put it mildly. There, on the floor, lay the mutilated corpses of his elderly parents. The katana sank to the floor as Jack realized that his parents were not just hurt, but dead. And not only dead, but seemingly ripped apart... And the perpetrator was still in the house. He had heard him breaking something, hadn`t he?

The katana came up again, this time in a combat pose. Jack was now so angry, he didn`t care about stalking anymore and walked out in the hallway again. He roared incoherently in rage, before setting off towards the stairwell. He rushed up, and faintly registered the smell of death becoming stronger. He ran all the way up, then crashed into the second storey living room, hoping to find someone, something, he could kill. A loud groaning met him, and in the middle of the room stood a...zombie? _What the..._ Jack thought. It was definitely dead, since half its face was ripped of, and its throat was gone. But... A zombie?

The notion of the living dead walking in his parents' living room momentarily stunned Jack, even in his sorrow-fueled fury, and the katana dropped from its ready state to rest with the tip on the floor. However, the zombie-thing was definitely not stunned, and charged clumsily at Jack. As the stench of decay assaulted Jacks nostrils, he snapped out of the daze, and raised his blade to defend himself, slashing wildly at the ghoul. One of its arms dropped to the floor, and it lost a few fingers on the other arm, but that didn't deter the ghoul at all, and it slashed at Jack with its remaining arm and fingers. Luckily for Jack, ghouls are really slow, and he managed to dodge out of the way without a scratch.

"What the fuck is going on here?" he said, lifting the sword to attack once more. The ghoul turned around, preparing another strike, but Jack was faster, stabbing the katana into the ghoul's chest, sinking it to the hilt. Yet the thing STILL would not die.

"Svarte HELVETE!" Jack swore in Norwegian, and ripped the katana out of the monster's chest. Barely dodging another slash, he tried once more to kill the damn thing, this time striking for the head. The sharp blade easily sliced through the skull of the monster, exposing its brain to air. The ghoul, now with only half a head, stood there a short while before collapsing in a heap on the floor. Jack stood there, over the remains of his first zombie-kill, and panted heavily.

"Damnit, I have to start exercising after this..." he said in a fit of dark humour, his brain not functioning properly after the shock the poor thing had gone through. When the panting subsided, he looked down at the putrid corpse.

"So, headshots kill ya, eh?" he said before turning to check the other rooms. Now he was both confused and pissed. Something had killed his parents, and apparently that something had been some kind of zombie. Since Jack never was one to get paralyzed due to stress, he figured he'd go zombie-hunting. The rational part of his brain knew it was stupid, seeing that he nearly died just by fighting one, but he didn't care anymore. The upper floor was clear, so he walked back to the stairs, intending to get out, either to kill more zombies, or to get help somehow. He simply didn't know anymore. His brain was fast overloading, and for each minute that passed, he became more and more confused. Suddenly, a horrible gnashing sound emerged from behind the living room doors. Jack, against the will of the part of his brain that was still rational, opened the door, revealing not one or two, but five ghouls feasting on his parents corpses.

Suddenly, a furious bloodlust settled over him. No fucking way those walking maggot-buffets were gonna eat his parents! This was probably the stupidest thing he had ever done in his entire life, but at that moment, he didn't care. He roared in rage, and charged the first ghoul, swinging his blade hard against its head, slicing straight through the surprised zombie's skull. Before the corpse hit the floor, he had moved on to the next one, trying to kill it with a heavy overhead chop. He missed, and the chop hit its left shoulder instead. Since this ghoul was particularly rotten, and Jack had used all his admittedly limited might in the chop, the sword passed straight through flesh and bone, slicing its heart in two. The ghoul crumbled into a heap, and left a slightly perplexed Jack. _Heads and heart, eh? Very well then..._ he thought and dodged away from a slashing ghoul. He stepped back two steps, then stepped forward one step and thrust the blade out, striking the monster in the chest, just like the one on the second floor. However, this time, the ghoul died, since Jack had aimed for the heart.

Three ghouls down, two to go. However, Jack had now lost the element of surprise, and the undead monstrosities lurched towards him, making disgusting gurgling and groaning sounds. Jack stepped back two steps, then suddenly lost his footing in a pool something very slippery. He crashed down, taking a small table with him, and landed straight in the puddle. He scrambled backwards to avoid the ghouls closing in, and nearly slipped again. He looked down at the puddle, and realized that it was blood. Quite a large amount of it too. Gasping in shock, he stumbled backwards again, into a bookshelf that stood there. It stabilized him somewhat, and he regained his footing and brandished the now bloody blade against the ghouls again.

He stepped forward and sliced at the closest zombie, trying to hit its head, but he nearly slipped in the blood again and missed, only scoring a deep gash in the monster's chest. That didn't hinder the ghoul at all, however, and he continued to lurch forward, nearly within striking distance now. Jack realised he would probably lose with such precarious footing and wisely ran halfway across the room before turning to face the ghouls again.

Jack was now panting heavily, the ghoul-slaying taking its toll on his untrained body. The lead ghoul, the one with the gash, came into striking distance again, and Jack prepared to attack. He slashed hard, and just as the blade went through the monster's skull, killing it, something bit into his leg from behind, making him yelp in pain and fall over. He looked down his leg and to his horror saw his own mother's zombified face biting and gnashing into his leg. He did the only sensible thing he could do, and whacked her over the head with the sword until she let go, then quickly crawled towards the door. His right leg, the one she…it, had bitten, was useless, some kind of poison paralyzing it.

A loud groaning was suddenly heard from behind, and Jack slowly turned. There, in front of the entrance, his father's corpse stood, blocking the way. Jack stumbled to his feet, using his one good foot to jump to a corner of the room. There was no running away now. His mother's and father's corpses, in addition to the nameless third ghoul, came lurching towards him. He lifted the katana and blinked away a few tears, created from pain, grief and rage. The nameless ghoul was the quickest one, and it was the first to arrive. Jack raised the blade, and brought it down heavily on the slow ghoul's head, intending to finish it off quickly, before he was overrun. Then, to his horror, he felt the blade shatter against something. The ghoul he had tried to kill died, but he could plainly see a metal plate implant in its head, the wound from the katana having exposed it. Now, he only held the jagged remains of the katana, only a rough third of it still attached to the hilt. He looked down at it, but kept holding it. After all, it was the only weapon he had within reach.

A gurgling sound reached his ears, and he looked up just in time to see his father's corpse slash at him with his claws, striking him in the chest. He groaned in pain and lifted the broken blade to defend himself. He blocked a strike aimed for his head, but couldn't bring himself to retaliate. Even if they were dead, they were still his mother and father! His mother was the next to attack and jumped forward to bite again. Jack brought the blade up to protect himself, and the ghoul bit down hard on it. It started shaking its head, like a dog, and Jack had to let go of the shattered sword. Now unarmed, he had nothing to defend himself with against the ghoulish onslaught. It was over within moments. Jack was still alive, barely. He was covered in his own blood, shivering from the apparently poisonous ghoul bites. Vaguely, he heard two bangs that sounded like gunshots before he passed out.

"Master! He is still alive!" Seras exclaimed as she examined the body of the young man that was lying on the floor. He had horrible wounds, but was still breathing...barely. Alucard surveyed the room. Other than the two he had shot, there were five dead ghouls in the room. His nose told him there was a sixth dead one on the top floor too. Spread out on the floor near the corner the shattered remnants of a sword lay. It was bloodied by ghoul blood too. Alucard quickly pieced together what had occurred there, and suddenly made a decision.

"Seras... Turn him." he said.

Seras looked up at her master, a shocked expression spreading across her face. "But... why? And how do you know if I would be able? And what will Sir Integra say?" Alucard just stared at her a short while. A wet gurgling sound from the human on the floor sounded, and Alucard figured he`d better hurry up explaining before the human died.

"You see these ghoul corpses?" he asked, pointing at the various corpses on the floor. "There are five of them here. And there is a sixth one on the top floor too. This human, only armed with a sword, killed six ghouls all by himself. That's worth preserving. And, I can smell his virgin blood from here. You should have noticed it too." Seras blushed a little. Yeah, she had noticed the rather appetizing smell, she had just ignored it.

"What about Sir Integra then?" Seras asked, cradling the human's head in her lap, having nothing better to do.

"Do you really think I cared about that when I turned you?" Alucard asked with a grin. "Now, turn him. That's an order." Alucard's voice turned commanding. While he technically didn't have the power to force Seras to obey anymore, since she had finally become a True Undead some thirty-five odd years ago, his orders still carried some weight.

"Okay then, Master..." Seras said with a weak voice. She leaned over the now even weaker human, mumbling a short "Sorry..." before she bent over to give him the Vampire Kiss.

On a nearby hilltop, a lone figure surveyed the town of Burntwood. He was tall and almost sickly skinny, and his skin had a sickly whitish-green colour that would fit better on a corpse than on a man. He was clad in long flowing robes, that seemed to be made of rotting human skin, and he carried a huge black scythe in his right hand. Everything about this man looked more like it would fit on a necromancer from a fantasy novel than a real person. He looked more dead than alive in fact. Then again, he was technically dead. He grinned widely, revealing his fangs, as he watched the undead citizens of Burntwood be slaughtered by the Hellsing vampires. The test was a success.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two, rewritten like everything else. Thanks to Lion in the Land for betareading the original story, and to Metropolis Kid for letting me use the name Bastet ^^ I reccomend checking out both of them^^

DISCLAIMER: I still don`t own anything. If I did, then Seras wouldn`t be in this story, but naked in my room instead. =D

* * *

Jack slowly opened his eyes. Then he quickly closed them again.

"Ughh… Bright lights…" he mumbled. Then his brain kick-started, and he realized that he was alive. Or, atleast he was able to think.

_Hm, I guess heaven does exist after all,_ he thought. Suddenly, the memories of the last twenty-four hours hit him like a truck, and he bolted up into a sitting position, releasing a sound that was a combination between a cry of fear and a growl of rage. Unfortunately, the sudden motion made his head spin, and he let himself slowly fall back down onto the soft pillow. He groaned again, trying to figure out how the hell he had ended up here, and what was going on. Nothing made sense, however, and he tried to open his eyes once again. His vision was a little blurry in the beginning, but he managed to get his bearings. He was lying in some kind of hospital bed, with a bright operation-lamp shining directly in his face. He turned his head to the left, and saw nothing but a small empty table and a white wall. He turned his head again, this time to the right, and his eyes took in the details on the rest of the room. It was of medium size and quite empty except for a lot of complex-looking medical equipment. And five odd-looking persons.

The first person was an unnaturally tall, raven-haired man clad in a weird suit, a red coat, and a huge red fedora. The second one was dressed as a butler and looked quite old. His left eye was covered by a monocle, and his hands were behind his back, seemingly awaiting orders from whoever was his employer. Standing right next to him was a beautiful woman, clad in some kind of military uniform. However, instead of pants, she wore a ridiculously short skirt. She also had a huge rack. Standing a little away from the others stood two other women. The youngest looked like she was around fifteen years old. She was tall for her age, and wore her platinum hair flowing down her back. She was clad in jeans and a tight t-shirt that easily betrayed the fact that she was quite 'developed' for her age. The older woman seemed to be her mother, since they were very similar, but she wore a male suit that concealed her figure for some reason Jack couldn`t understand at that point. Also, she had a pair of glasses sitting on her nose. Everyone was looking at him, most likely because he had just bolted up before lying down again.

"Uhm… Hello?" Jack said, still wondering what the hell was going on. Everyone in the room looked at each others' faces for a moment before rushing over to the bedside, with the exception of the older woman and the red-clad guy.

"Are you feeling okay?" the woman with the huge rack asked.

"I suppose so… And that is bothering me. I should be dead. Where am I? How did I end up here? Who are you? What the fuck is happening here?" Jack ranted, while sitting up slowly to avoid dizziness, his voice betraying confusion. At this point, he didn't know what was real and what was not.

"Uhmm…." The woman he was talking to mumbled something that no-one caught, obviously not wanting to be the one to explain.

"You are in the basement of the Hellsing Mansion," the older woman suddenly said with a powerful voice, obviously annoyed of waiting. "You are officially dead, turned a vampire by Commander Seras Victoria here," at which point she pointed at the woman with the huge breasts, "and you will stay here as her fledgling. I am Sir Integral Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing, the leader of the Hellsing organization, formally known as the Royal Order of Protestant Knights. This is my daughter, Elizabeth Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing, and she will most likely become your future Master when she succeeds me," she pointed at her daughter, who gave a quick bow. "This is Alucard. He is the oldest vampire here, and he is Seras' master. The butler is Mr. Walter C. Dornez, "The Angel of Death". Now, please tell us your name," Integra said with an aura of command.

"Uhm… My name is Jack Smith," he said, unable to refuse. He didn`t think much of it at that point though. "Wait a second….Royal Order of Protestant Knights?" he said, tasting the words. Suddenly, he lit up. "Oh, now I get it! This must be a dream. I'm probably still sleeping in the cab. I guess the next people I will be meeting are the people from the Ministry of Silly-Walks, eh?" he said with a laugh. He was more or less completely convinced that he was dreaming. Where else would he have been turned a vampire by a smoking hot chick?

"This is not a dream, Mr. Smith," the butler piped in.

"Just call me Jack. Everyone does. And if this is not a dream, then prove it," Jack said confidently. "If this is a dream, I will not be able to feel pain, nor will I be able to read. Or so I`ve heard at least. First test first! Someone, pinch me." Jack said before closing his eyes. Everyone looked at each other for a moment in confusion, but then Integra nodded at Alucard. His trademark psychotic grin appeared, and his arms multiplied into around twenty shadowy tendrils, each with a small claw at the end. He stalked up behind Jack, who was still sitting upright with closed eyes, then suddenly pinched him in various body parts at once.

"YEAOWCH!" Jack yelled, swatting away a tendril that had pinched his nose. "Okay, first test failed…" he mumbled to himself, massaging various aching points on his body. Then, raising his voice so that the others could hear, he continued. "Okay then, next test to check if this is a dream. Does anyone have something to read?"

"Uhm… Jack? What are you doing?" Elizabeth asked, wondering what kind of tests he was mumbling to himself about.

"Well, I'm trying to prove my theory that this is a dream. In a scientific way. I hope. The point is that if these tests show that this is not a dream, then my theory is incorrect, and I`ll have to figure out a new one."

"Why are you doing that?"

"Well, I'm a physics and chemistry teacher at a university, and I have a friend that's a bio-engineer, so this is practically second nature to me. Also, it helps me keeps out of my mind the possibility that this is not a dream." Jack's voice faltered a bit towards the end as he remembered what had hopefully not happened last night. His eyes lit up, however, when Walter came and handed him a book.

"Bram Stokers Dracula?" Jack said as he inspected the title of the book. "Oh, the irony…" he mumbled as he flipped up the book at a random page. He read. Then he read some more before he continued to read. Some ten minutes later, a very annoyed Integra finally snapped, and she yelled at him.  
"Haven`t you proven your blasted theory wrong yet?" Jack jumped, startled by the sudden sound, then looked around to get his bearings.

"Oh. Sorry. I tend to get a little hung up in books when I read…" he said, apologizing, before reluctantly closing the book. "It's a good book," Jack said as if to defend himself. For some reason, the curious red clad guy named Alucard smiled a bit at this. "Okay! Next theory! If this is not a dream, it's one of these three alternatives: A) I`m barking mad, and all of this is going on inside my head. B) You are mad, and I`ve been kidnapped by you. C) This is reality. Since I have no means to check my own head at the moment, and it is unlikely that five persons are so 'synchronized' when they are insane, theory C is the one I'll go with."

After this little rant, Jack seemed to deflate a little. With no science, or even pseudo-science, to keep his mind occupied, it had started wandering back to last night, reviewing the horrible memories. But then, finding something to wrap his mind around, he lit up again. "You said that I`m supposed to be a vampire now, didn`t you?" he asked, his voice tinted with hope for some reason.

Most of the gathered people answered "Yes?" in some variation, ranging from the normal English one, through the french "oui" from Seras, to low affirmative grunts.

"Good!" Jack said and lit up even more. "If I can prove you wrong, I will also prove 'Reality-theory-C' wrong!" he said with a smile. That had apparently been the source of the hope-tinted voice.

"So, you are saying that vampires don't exist?" Elizabeth said with a sly grin.

"Of course not. They are just stories to frighten kids, aren`t they?" Jack said. At this, the whole group suddenly started laughing. "What?" Jack said, wondering why the hell they were laughing.

"Hehehehe…. No. Vampires are most real," Integra said as the laughter faded. "Actually, there are only two living persons in this room," she continued. "Me and my daughter."

Jack stared at them. Then at the other persons in the room, who all bared their fangs, and opened their eyes more to show off the bright red colour. Jack waved for one of them to get closer, and Walter complied. "Open yer mouth," Jack said, too shocked to be polite. Walter didn`t mind however, and opened his mouth to show Jack his fangs up close. Jack poked one fang, but quickly retracted his finger when the sharp fang poked a hole in the skin. He held his other hand up and grasped Walters face tightly, making him grunt slightly in discomfort. Then, Jack slowly got his right hand up again, and grabbed a fang, before trying to rip it off with all his strength. It didn't budge, which proved his theory of fake fangs wrong.

After loosening his grip on Walter's face, he apologized for it and asked if he could inspect his eyes for signs of contact-lenses. None were found, and Jack slumped back into a sitting position. He stared for a while at the other people present, then said slowly, "Okay, it seems my theory of vampires not existing was wrong. However, I inspected only one of three possible persons. Might I check you others too?" His voice was kind of distant, as if he had trouble comprehending the information his brain realized was correct.

After a nod from Integra, all the other vampires let themselves get 'proof-checked' by Jack. After he finished checking for contacts in a grumbling Alucard's eyes, Jack sighed. "Okay, it seems every one of you have natural fangs and red eyes. However, according to legend, vampires have several other abilities too, correct?" he said, looking at Integra, having realized that she was apparently in command around here.

"That is correct. For example, monstrous strength, regenerative abilities and no need to breathe," Integra replied. "I assume you would like to check that, too?" she asked, now understanding roughly how Jack's mind worked. If you couldn't prove something to him, it wasn't real. "Yes please," Jack said, looking hopeful. As a response, Integra drew a revolver, startling Jack, and promptly shot Alucard in the face, blowing off half his head.

"What the fuck? Are you fucking INSANE? You just shot the poor dude!" Jack exclaimed, shocked at what he had just witnessed. The worst was yet to come, however, as the bits and pieces of Alucard's head slithered together and merged with his body to reform his head.

"Oh, Master, why always me?" Alucard inquired with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. Integra just rolled her eyes.

Jack closed his mouth, which had been hanging open. "Okay, I give up. Vampires exist. There is no freaking way a human could have survived being shot in the face like that," Jack said, still partially in shock.

Again, he nearly slipped into his memories, before another idea hit him. "Uhmm… You also said that I was a vampire, correct?" he said, his voice neutral, but curious.

"Yes, that is correct. You were turned by Seras, and are her fledgling," Integra replied, a hint of anger in her voice. Jack realized that even though she was the commander, she had not ordered him to be turned.

"Well, that means that I will have fangs and red eyes too, am I correct? And I will be really, really…resilient?" Jack asked.

"Mostly, yes. However, since you are not a True Vampire yet, your eyes will retain their natural colour when you are not using vampiric powers, and you will also have to train yourself to reach the level of being able to survive a headshot like that," Integra answered.

Jack sat silently, thinking for a good long while. Then he brought his hand up to check his teeth. He immediately retracted it when he felt fangs, however. He shook his head vigorously, then brought his hand up to feel his fangs again. In addition to trying to tear them out, he also used his nails to try to find gaps between the fangs and eventual natural teeth beneath. However, he did not find any, and after some five minutes of trying, he gave up.

"Okay, it seems I have fangs. Cool enough, but it doesn't prove I'm a vampire."

"What? You need more proof?" Integra yelled. She had finally snapped at Jack's insatiable need for proof and turned towards Alucard.

"Alucard!"

"Yes, Master?"

"I order you to strangle Jack by clamping his mouth and nose shut!" Integra yelled, and Alucard smiled sadistically.

"Of course, Master…"

Jack, of course, had heard the whole thing, since they had been yelling, and was now wondering whether to try fighting a man he had just seen recover from a headshot, or just give up. As Alucard's hands clamped shut over his nose and mouth, however, his survival instincts kicked in, and he started punching wildly at Alucard. His attacker, however, didn`t even budge. After five minutes, Jack suddenly stopped. He thought for a moment.

_I just spent the last five minutes struggling against…Alucard, was it? And he is restricting my airflow… I should have been dead. _

Jack started waving at Integra to get Alucard off him, and she nodded at him. Alucard released him and stepped back behind Integra. Instead of taking a breath, Jack continued to hold his breath, just to test it. After yet another few minutes, he gave up and started breathing again.

"Okay, I give up. I'm a vampire. At least, I'm dead. No way I could have survived that just there," he said before slumping back into a lying position. "What's going to happen to me then?" Jack asked, his voice neutral as he tried to keep a scientific outlook. For once, it wasn't Integra who answered his question.

"Well, since you are my fledgling, you are going to stay here. And stop thinking of me as 'The big breasted woman'!" Seras said, having peeked into Jack's mind.

"What the…. How did you know that?" Jack shot back, temporarily forgetting everything else he should be worried about in his bewilderment over how she had managed to gain that piece of information.

"Vampires can read minds! And, as your master, I have unrestricted access to yours! Even when you learn how, you won`t be able to block me!"

"Okay, okay! I won`t think of you as 'The big breasted woman' anymore. Even though you are." Jack said, holding his hands up in defeat, before slumping again. Seras glared at him for a while, but her expression softened as she thought about what had happened to him the last two days.

"I bet you are tired. Maybe you would like to get some rest?" Seras asked with a voice that was slightly tinted with something that sounded like maternal care. Integra opened her mouth to deny him that, since she wanted some more answers from him, but she stopped when she saw the glare Seras gave her. Integra may have been the commander there, but this was Seras' fledgling.

"Walter, please escort Jack to his room. The one with his things in it. And when you have done that, bring him his new uniform and something to eat," she said instead, before turning to leave the room for her office.

"Of course, Sir." Walter replied, and beckoned for Jack to follow him. Jack stood up, noting for the first time that he was clad in only some sort of hospital-style pajamas, and took some unsteady steps towards the door. He was still terribly weak after his ordeal, and he soon stumbled. He would have crushed his nose on the concrete floor had Walter not caught him. The old bugger was surprisingly strong, despite looking like he was close to 70 years old.

"Thanks buddy…" Jack mumbled as Walter supported him down the hallway to his room. Once inside, Jack noted that there were lots of boxes that he assumed contained his stuff crammed against one of the walls. A loud "MEOW!" from the bed revealed that his cat, Bastet, was there too. He smiled slightly, then stumbled to the bed and sat down, unable to do much else.

"If there is anything I can help you with, just ask," The butler said as he turned to leave the room.

"No…Nothing…" Jack answered, but only long after Walter had left. He had given up on trying to suppress the horrible memories. He had been able to force them down since waking up, by keeping his mind occupied, but now that he was alone with no distractions, the memories resurfaces and the first of a long line of bloody tears fell to the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3, rewritten. Again, the original one was betaread by Lion in the Land (LiLa for short ^^ ) and I would've been totaly screwed if she hadn't xD

DISCLAIMER: I don`t own Hellsing or anything else that I write about in this story, save Jack Smith and Bastet (the cat). WOHO! I own a kitteh, I own a kitteh... :D

* * *

"Sir integra? What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Seras inquired, standing in Integra's office.

"Jack. Why?" Integra simply said. She had wanted to ask that question for two days now, ever since Jack had awoken and subsequently locked himself in his new room, but a FREAK-attack had forced her to put it off. The question did not seem to be unexpected by the draculina.

"I…I don`t know, Sir," she said, staring at the floor with her hands folded in front of her. She could've said that Alucard ordered her to, but she knew she could've denied that order at any point. She honestly did not know why she had decided to turn him.

"I suppose there is nothing we can do about it now," Integra sighed. She could practically feel that Jack would cause her more than one headache in the future. First of all, there was the upcoming Round Table meeting. They were going to go berserk when they found out that one of her pet vampires had gone out and reproduced. Integra looked at her cigars, sitting there on the desk, tempting her. She had all but quit after she became pregnant with Elizabeth fifteen years earlier, and now only lit one up when she needed to calm herself. She shook her head, and instead turned the intercom on and told Walter to bring her a cup of tea. Suddenly, a loud knock on the door announced that someone stood outside.

"Come in," Integra said and gestured to let Seras know that she could leave. There was no need for her to be there, since they were done talking, anyway.

"Uhm….Hello?" Integra looked up from the files she was reading. There, in the doorway, stood Jack, clad in his new uniform, looking extremely uncomfortable in it. Integra stopped Seras from leaving with another gesture and motioned for both to sit down. She assumed that Seras would like to talk to Jack a bit too. After all, he was her fledgling.

"Good evening, Jack. Have you decided to stop locking yourself in your room now?" Integra politely asked, with only a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Uhm… Yes. You see, I did that to… to get over my parents' death," Jack said, his voice faltering slightly when he thought about his parents. "I think I have gotten over it now."

"Only two days? That was incredibly quick!" Seras said, remembering how long she had been crying when her own parents were killed.

"Yeah… I suppose you could call it an ability. I'm not easily affected by emotions, and I have ability to simply…stuff memories away. Think of it as stuffing it in a crate and locking it away," Jack said, keeping his voice neutral. There was a kind of awkward silence as Integra started to dig through the pile of papers to find Jack's file. Seras had no response, and Jack was busy looking around the room, taking in the details.

"Uhm…. Where are we exactly? And what time is it? It's dark outside…" he suddenly asked, realizing that he didn't know where he was, other than 'in the Hellsing Mansion.'

"This is the Hellsing Mansion, just outside of London. And it`s 3 AM right now," Seras said, showing him her watch.

"Then…. Why am I not tired?" Jack asked, scratching his head.

"Well, you are a vampire now. Vampires sleep during the day, you know," Seras replied.

"Oh. Yeah. Right. Hmmm…" Jack mumbled. "I wondered… You know that 'dies if struck by sunlight' thing? Is that true?" he asked with a slightly worried voice, looking alternately on Seras and Integra, who by now had found the file and was looking through it.

"Depends on which bloodline you are. We are 'Nosferatu,' which is those who are the descendants of Dracula, so we won`t burn, but it weakens us. The stronger ones of us, like me and Alucard, can walk around in sunlight with only minor effects," Seras explained.

"Woah! Hold your horses! Dracula? As in, THE Dracula? From the book?" Jack exclaimed.

"Yes indeed. He does exist," Integra said, mentally ordering Seras not to tell him Alucard's real identity yet.

"That's so awesome, it's practically scary," Jack mumbled to himself while staring at his own hand, thinking that he was actually a descendant of Dracula himself. "Sooo….. What do the Hellsing folks do? And what is my task here?" Jack asked after a while.

"The Hellsing organization's mission is basically to rid the world of the evil filth that is vampires." Integra said, her voice full of pride.

"Hey! That wasn`t very nice!" Jack replied after realizing that now meant him too. "What did I ever do to you?" he continued, obviously offended by Integra's stereotyping. She just sighed.

"And…there are… certain exceptions…" she said with a strained voice, obviously hating the words she was saying, and Jack calmed visibly, but still glared at her. Seras was too used to Integra's stereotyping to care, but it did make her feel better that Integra admitted there were good vampires out there, too. Seras knew that it was the common laws the IAPD had enforced that forced her boss to stop assuming that all vampires were evil, but still. Seras remembered when they had joined the IAPD a few decades earlier, forced by the queen. Integra had practically been fuming when she read the rules of the IAPD, amongst those being that "All paranormal being are to be treated as humans, unless proven to be inherently evil."

Apparently, the USA branch, named BPRD, had amongst other things, a demon under their command. He had a really cheesy name, too, if Seras remembered correctly. 'Hellboy' or something. Seras was jerked out of her thoughts by the eerie silence that had settled over the room. Jack was glaring at Integra, still offended, and Integra was glaring right back, refusing to back down. Though, after a short while, they both gave up. There was no point in having a glaring competition when no-one would win.

"You never answered what it is I`m supposed to do here," Jack stated, curiously inspecting the room again.

"You are a vampire, so therefore you will be one of the operatives here. Essentially, you will be a monster-slayer," Integra answered, rising to her feet to stand before the window, looking out into the garden outside.

"A….monster-slayer?" Jack asked, eyeing Integra suspiciously, looking for a sign that she was joking. None was found.

"Yes. We have already painstakingly proven for you that vampires exist, and that you are one of them. Now is it so hard to imagine that other things that go bump in the night exist?" Integra answered with a certain amount of mirth in her voice.

"Okay….I suppose you are right…" Jack said, even if he didn't believe it yet himself. When he saw these alleged 'monsters' himself, he would believe in them, not a second sooner. He knew that zombies existed, of course. It was pretty hard to forget that particular experience, especially in such a short amount of time. Of course, he hadn't even tried to forget it. Better to accept it than bury it.  
"Hm…. How am I supposed to…fight… these monsters? I'm pretty useless when fighting…" Jack said with a dark chuckle, holding up his rather skinny arms to prove his point.

"You forget that vampires are very strong. I bet you can bend steel now, or will be able to very soon. And we'll of course train you," Seras said, holding up her own rather girlish arms. Of course, she had nothing to bend at the moment, but she would show him later.

"Bend steel? I gotta try that…" Jack said with a chuckle, still not entirely convinced. There was a little period of silence as Jack tried to imagine himself bending steel-bars and Seras remembered how ridiculous it had been when she herself had done so for the first time.

Integra was reading in Jack's file again. "Jack? How is your view on religion? On souls?" she suddenly asked. It was better for his psyche that he was informed as quickly as possible of the soulless state of vampires.

"I'm an atheist. You can't prove that God exists, and therefore I don't believe in him. Same goes for souls," Jack said absentmindedly as he inspected the contents on Integra's desk. His eyes fell on a beautiful silver ashtray, and he reached his hand out to pick it up.

"YEOWCH!" he exclaimed as a fizzling sound and the smell of burnt flesh spread in the room. The ashtray fell down on the floor and settled on the carpet after rolling around twice. Jack spouted a few choice phrases, which no one understood since they were in Norwegian, before chucking his fingers in his mouth to let his saliva alleviate the burning pain he was feeling. "Fhat the fhuck man?" he said, hand still in his mouth. He took it out again and stared at the wounds, which had already begun to heal.

"What the fuck is the point of having an ashtray that's heated?" he said, pointing at the ashtray, not daring to pick it up again.

"It wasn`t," Integra said, chuckling. "You are a vampire now, so silver will hurt you. That ashtray is made from silver. As you can see, the wounds you received aren't healing very well. The process is accelerated due to your saliva, however."

"My spit?" Jack said, wondering what would be the next piece of nonsense Integra would spout. Of course, this just annoyed him to no end, since he knew that this nonsense was actually true.

"Yes. Vampire saliva somehow accelerates the healing processes, not only in vampires, but in humans as well. If not, the vampire's victims would die once bitten, and if the vampire wants to keep them alive, then that's not good."  
"Uh…. Yeah. I guess so." Jack deflated a bit. "Uhm… is there any more vampiric abilities I should know of? Since I am one now, I suppose it's nice to know what I should be able to do," Jack asked, looking alternately at Integra and then Seras.

As Integra started to explain the basic abilities he should expect to gain over time, Seras suddenly spotted a pair of white gloves with red seals slide up through the floor in front of Jack. She was just about to shout a warning, but was too late, and the gloves latched onto Jack's legs.

The reaction was instantaneous. Jack bolted up, took a step backwards, fell over his chair, and his voice rang out and could probably have been heard on the other side of the mansion.

"SVARTE FAEN I HELVETE, KE FAEN E DET DU DRIV MED? HELVETES HÆSTKUK-FAEN!" Jack roared to a hysterically laughing Alucard. The next few minutes were spent either watching Alucard laugh, or listening to Jack curse like a drunken Norwegian sailor. Of course, no one understood what he was saying, but the tone of his voice made it pretty clear what he was yelling.

When the chaos had at last subsided, Jack was sitting opposite to Alucard. The latter was still chuckling, apparently finding the new recruit to be the funniest thing that had happened since Millennium popped up, and the former was glaring fiery death at him. Seras sat in the middle, unnerved by both of them, and Integra had seated herself behind her desk again. She was quietly puffing on a cigar.

"Seras?" she said, massaging the bridge of her nose to alleviate the beginning headache.

"Yes Sir?" Seras answered, hoping to get out of the room. An uncharacteristically mirthful Alucard, and an obviously pissed Jack was quite the party-pooper.

"Take Jack down to the shooting range and see how his skills with guns are. His file has no records of it, and I need to know my mens' capabilities," Integra said as she crushed the last remnants of her cigar in the ashtray.

"Yes, Sir!" Seras said, relieved to have something to do. She practically jumped out of her chair, grabbed a bewildered Jack, and started walking towards the door. When they reached it, Seras automatically phased through it, as she had done countless times the last few decades. Poor Jack, however, didn`t know how to do it, and crashed straight into the door since Seras hadn't lost her grip on his arm.

"Oh, sorry!" Seras said sheepishly as she phased halfway back through the door again, looking at Jack lying on the floor with crossed eyes. If this had been a cartoon, Seras thought, he'd be surrounded by birds or stars now.

"Ugh…" Jack groaned as he tried to uncross his eyes. He didn`t manage it and slumped back on the floor again. It seemed like Seras had been walking faster than she expected. She just shrugged and bent down and scooped up Jack, carrying him out and down the stairs. This time, she opened the doors.

"What the… Seras, could you please let me down? It's weird being carried by a woman. Especially bridal-style," Jack said as he finally managed to straighten up the world again and realized that he was being carried by Seras. She grinned evilly, and dropped him straight on the floor.

"Ah, Seras, that wasn't very nice!" a voice called out, accompanied by a chuckle. Jack got up from the concrete floor and looked around a bit while dusting off. He was in some kind of shooting range, full of booths where people could stand and shoot at targets in their 'lane.' The voice's owner was a man standing by a booth, holding something that looked like a military-issue sniper rifle.

"Oh, hey Alex! Well, I guess I've inherited some of Alucard's sense of humour," she said with a laugh. "Jack, this is Alex, the armory-master of the Hellsing armories."  
"Mornin', eh, Alex," Jack said, hoping that it was the name he usually used, and not something only close friends called him. Apparantly, it was the former, as he didn't react in any particularly unusual way when called so.

"Mornin' t'you too, Jack! You're here to test your skillz with guuunz, eh?" Alex said, intentionally pronouncing the S' as a Z, and drawing out the U sound in guns. He was obviously not expecting an answer, since he immediately turned towards a metal cabinet containing more weapons than Jack had ever seen before. At least in real life.

"Okay, let's start with small arms," he said, pulling out a huge gun, a Desert Eagle.

"Small? That thing will probably break my arms when I fire it!" Jack exclaimed. Even he knew about Desert Eagles and their extreme recoil.

"Eh… You're a vampire. That one is child's play," Alex said with a smirk. The reason behind his smirk became apparent a moment later. "You should see Seras fire HER gun. THAT is a large gun!"  
As if on cue, Seras came back from the armory with her Harconnen-cannon. She had left to fetch it when Alex turned to pull out the Desert Eagle from the small weapon-cabinet. When Jack saw the ridiculously large gun, his jaws simply dropped.

"Are…are you…gonna…fire that thing?" he asked, hoping desperately that it was she that was going to fire it, and not him. He had absolutely no desire to experience that monstrosity's kickback.

"Of course!" Seras replied cheerily and walked over to one of the booths. She quickly loaded the weapon with something that looked like artillery ammunition before aiming down the barrel.

'BOOM'

The target was gone. Not dead, but simply gone. There was a small crater in its place, however.

"Oh. Woops. I guess I shouldn't have used the explosive rounds," Seras mumbled, scratching the back of her head. Jack whimpered as his jaw dropped, then looked at the handgun he was holding.  
_Rather have this than that. _He thought before closing his jaw. Alex motioned for him to come over to a booth, then gave him a crash-course in gun-handling. Some ten minutes later, Jack was trying to aim at the target closest to himself, only 50 meters down the line. He squeezed the trigger, as Alex had taught him, and the gun went off.

"Hey! Nice shot!" Seras said, inspecting the target. The shot had gone straight through its head, right between the eyes.

"Uhm….I don't think so. That was not the target I was aiming for," Jack said, scratching his head. He had hit something alright, but he had hit the two hundred meter target instead of the fifty meter target.

"Which target were you aiming for then?" Alex asked, looking up from an assault rifle he was polishing.

"The fifty meter one," Jack said, wishing he could just disappear through the floor. The fifty meter target and the two-hundred meter target were twenty meters apart, sideways.

"Oh. Ouch. I bet you'll probably be spending a LOT of time down here," the armory-master commented before chuckling at Jack's incompetence and going back to cleaning the gun. "Oh, and by the way, remember to switch the safety on again."

"The safety? Ehm… How did I do that again?"

"You turn the little switch there up before…"

'PANG'

"…That happens…" Alex commented with annoyance. Of course, Jack had forgotten to switch the safety on, and of course he had accidentally fired the gun. Luckily, he hadn't hit someone. Yet.

"Eh…Sorry," Jack mumbled, his face beet-red.

Suddenly, Alucard came drifting through the roof. Upside down. And of course, this scared Jack shitless, for Alucard's face drifted down right in front of his, complete with maniacal grin and a gravity-defying hat.

"Argh!" Jack exclaimed, before stumbling backwards, just barely catching his balance before he fell on his back again. Alucard just chuckled before letting himself drop down on the floor, somehow turning upside down in the process, landing elegantly on his feet. He proceeded to stroll to the booth to inspect the rookie's work. Seras cringed when she heard Alucard start laughing, anticipating what was to come.

"Surely you must have meant to completely miss your target, and instead hit a target that I would think would be impossible to hit if aiming for the fifty meters. For a man with your education, it's just a matter of simple mathematics, right? Like, speed, mass, angles and such?" Alucard said with a mocking grin.

"Ergh…No… That was not my…intention," Jack said stiffly, badly concealed anger in his voice.

"And they let you teach? Children?" Alucard replied with a voice heavily laced with false shock.

Jack mumbled something unintelligibly, before raising his voice to normal levels. "Teenagers. I teach…taught… teenagers."

"Oh, that explains it. It must be much easier when the students are able to correct the teacher's mistakes," Alucard shrugged, still wearing his grin. "I guess the proverb rings true: Those who can, do; those who can`t, teach."

At this point, Jack was practically fuming. If looks could kill, then even Alucard would have been dead now. The carefully-observing Alex also noticed that Jack's eyes had changed colour to red. Jack himself was wondering whether to shoot Alucard with the gun he was still holding, or just give up. At long last, he settled on giving up. The collateral damage would be too great with the alternative. Instead, he just put the gun down on the nearby table, and slowly walked to his room.

In the quiet of his own mind, Alucard complimented the Rookie's willpower.


	4. Chapter 4

Mornin'! Chapter 4, the longest of the lot as of yet, rewritten and ready for action! Finaly, I might add xD

DISCLAIMER: I don`t own anything I don`t own. :P

A/N: First of all, thanks to LiLa for betareading again:P Also, the character mentioned near the end, Alexander Ciel, is not mine. He was created by MissUzumakiHinata, a friend of mine. Though, he was originally created for another fandom, I got permission to write him in here:P He`ll pop up some more too, later.

WARNING: This chapter contains gore n`blood. Of course, since it`s a Hellsing story, you probably expected it, but I`ll warn you anyway.

* * *

"Jack! Jaaaack!" Seras shouted. She had been send to find him because Integra wanted to talk to him. She had quickly pinpointed his aura somewhere in his room, but he didn't answer when she shouted. At last, she gave up. She mentally connected to Jack's mind, searching for any clue to why he didn't answer. She recoiled almost instantly, because a veritable wall of physical formulas and such slammed into her. Through the stream of thoughts, she figured out that he was ignoring her shouting on purpose.

With a little "Hmpf!" she opened the door to his room and entered. The only living or undead thing inside it was Bastet, the cat, who was sleeping on the bed, purring ever so slightly. Seras walked over and started petting the cat as she took a look at the room. Apparently Jack had finished unpacking all his stuff. A large shelf had been put up on one wall, filled with books. Most of them were divided into two types: either fantasy/science fiction literature, or thick, boring-looking books about chemistry, physics, biology and similar.

_Strange combination…._ Seras thought. On the table in the middle of the room, a large chemistry-set was set up, with lots of different bottles and jars and such. A well used, and slightly singed, chemists coat was hanging over the chair.

_Better not touch that… I don`t know what it is,_ Seras thought as she inspected some strange liquid in a bottle. It was green and slightly luminescent.

"_Seras! Have you found Jack yet?" _Integra's voice echoed in Seras' head.

"_No Sir, I`m still searching,_" she replied, putting down the bottle of green stuff. If he wasn`t in here, the only place left was the bathroom. She walked towards the door and was perplexed by the fact that it was slightly open. She tentatively walked in, fully prepared to phase out again if he was naked. However, he wasn't there. Or so it seemed.

"Mornin'," a voice suddenly said. It sounded vaguely like Jack, but was kind of gurgly and somewhat darker, as if it came from under water… Which it actually had. Seras walked towards the tub, only to have her jaw drop slightly. In the tub, which was filled up with water, lay Jack, clad in swimming trunks, grinning like an idiot while waving at Seras.

"Wha…what are you doing in the tub?" Seras asked, dumbstruck by what she saw. What was going on here?

"Why, I`m experimenting of course! I've always wanted to try talking in water instead of air, but since that would mean I'd drown, I haven't been able to before. Now however, I can. Also, I'm reinforcing the theory of 'me-being-a-vampire'," he said. "Also, this water is ridiculously hot. I can't feel temperatures anymore. Or, I can feel them, but my body is not affected," he continued, his face dropping a little. "Well, at least it works both ways. I can't feel cold anymore either! YAY!" he said with another ridiculous grin.  
"Eh… haven`t we already proven than you are a vampire?" Seras asked, fairly sure that they had.

"Well, yes. But that might have been a false result, since you folks were the ones to set up the tests, mostly. Now, when I'm making and executing the experiments myself, I can eliminate such insecurities in the test results. So far, it seems the theory is correct."

"Okay…. But, I was sent to find you. Sir Integra wants to talk you, so you should get dressed and get up to her office soon." Seras said, mentally telling herself that even after thirty years and a new vampire-recruit, she was still the only sane one here.

Jack coughed a bit as he prepared to knock on Integra's door. It was fun talking under water alright, but getting all the water out of his lungs again was a real bitch.

"Enter!" Integra's stern voice sounded as Jack knocked on the large ornamented oak doors.

"Mornin' Integra. Wazzap?" Jack asked, momentarily forgetting when and where he was, and who he was talking to, and falling back into habits created by talking too much to teens, and of course, being quite young himself.

"It is evening. And it is supposed to be 'What's up?'" Integra said with a rather cold voice. "And, you are to address me as either 'Sir' or 'Master'."

"Uhm….Okay….?" Jack answered, slightly stunned by the cold response. Apparently, this girl liked her titles. He looked up again and was met with an impatient Integra, tapping slightly on her desk. Suddenly, he remembered he had forgotten her title. _Master sounds too kinky, so I think I`ll go with 'Sir'… _he thought.

"Uhm, okay, eh, Sir."

"It'll do," Integra mumbled to herself when she heard the somewhat unenthusiastic reply. Raising her voice again, she continued while searching for a file on her desk. "I am about to give you your first mission. Since your marksman skills are somewhat…lacking, you will only be an observer on this mission. Your personal goal for the mission will be only to experience a typical Hellsing mission. You are not to engage any hostile targets, unless ordered by Seras, who will be the main agent on the mission. A small platoon of troops will also join you. Seras will instruct you in whatever you need to know." She stopped a bit, before fishing a small object out of her pocket. "And get Walter to sew these onto your uniform. You are ranked as a Lieutenant in the Hellsing Armed Forces, due to you being one of our special agents. This is in name only, since you have no experience or training, but as your training increases, so will your 'sphere of command,' and also your rank." The object she had pulled out from her pocket was a set of rank markings, to be sewn onto a uniform.

"Uh…Okay…? Sir?" Jack said, more or less stunned by the development. Lieutenant Jack? Had a nice ring to it, he had to say it.

"Go and fetch a gun from the armory, then report to Commander Seras. Some small arms, a Desert Eagle or something," Integra said before dismissing him with a wave. It was a very long time since she had been required to personally instruct a new recruit, and now she remembered why she didn`t like it at all.

_Sheez, this is the only place where people categorize a Desert Eagle as 'small', even though it is technically small arms… _Jack thought as he made his way out to do his tasks.

As he entered the armory, he saw that it was empty. Alex was probably down in the shooting range, one floor down. It didn't matter, for Jack knew the place inside out by now, since he had been here and fetched a weapon for his shooting training every single day the past week. Weird how quickly time passed when you were having fun, eh? Shooting was surprisingly fun, even though he still sucked pretty badly. At least he was starting to hit the right target now.

He walked over to the cabinet containing 'small' arms, and pulled out his key to it. He had been given that key so that he could practice whenever he wanted without needing to bother Alex, the care-taker of the armory, about it.

Jack plucked out a Desert Eagle, some ammo, the turned to leave. Then, he turned back again. If his aim sucked with one gun, wouldn't two guns double the number of bullets that hit? He quickly fetched another Eagle, and holstered both on each side of his hips him before walking towards the garage, where he assumed Seras was. He was feeling pretty darn cool as he walked down the hallway with the two guns at his sides. However, he deflated instantly when he opened the door to the garage and spotted Seras.

"What the hell is THAT?" he exclaimed, pointing at the ridiculously huge guns, no, cannons, she was lugging around.

"Oh, hello Jack. This? This is the Harconnen II," She replied cheerily. Jack just shook his head. By now, he was convinced that he was the only sane person around. Which was kind of sad he thought, since defining him as 'sane' was insane in itself. A guy who blows up stuff for fun, sane?

Suddenly, he noticed all the other people milling around. They were clad in a roughly similar uniform as he was, just with a bullet-proof vest and some other additions. Like, for example, a BAERLKS assault weapon. Suddenly, the Desert Eagles on his hips felt very small.

"Uhm… Should I go fetch one of those bullet-proof vests?" Jack asked Seras, who didn't wear one either. She was still wearing that uniform with the ridiculously short skirt. In his mind, Jack commented that the uniform was probably designed by someone with the hots for her. _Possibly that old dude, Walter. Pervy old man…._ he thought, before chuckling a bit. _Well, I guess I can be classified as pervy myself, so I don't mind._ Jack was practically just waiting for Seras to drop something so that she had to bend over to pick it up.

"_Jack! Stop thinking pervy things about me this instant!" _Seras' voice suddenly echoed in his mind. He gave her a glare, but complied. He had to figure out a way to keep her out of his mind.

Half an hour later, he was wedged in between Seras and the wall inside an armoured truck that was speeding toward their target. Not that he minded being squeezed into Seras, but it made it rather hard to think about non-pervy things. And of course, Seras was monitoring his every thought. His thought process was something like this:

_Holy shit, I`m close to her. Shit, do not think about her boobs! _

_q=Q+W, where q is internal energy, Q is heat energy and W is work… _

_DAMNIT I'm getting a boner, nonononono…. _

_P=N/A, where P is pressure measured in Pascal, N is newton, the force applied, and A is the area the force is applied to… _

_Holy shit she`s hot, both literaly and figuratively…_

At least he was trying. Every time his thoughts veered off towards Seras, he reined them in by thinking of physical formulas, like the formula for internal energy and the formula to determine pressure. It worked, to some extent. However, Seras was still wearing a scowl deeper than her cleavage when she exited the truck.

"So…. What am I supposed to do here?" Jack mumbled to himself. Integra had said he was only there to watch, but a little briefing would have been nice. As if on cue, Seras called the soldiers together for a briefing. Or, more correctly, she called Jack over to all the other soldiers, who knew the routine.

"This mission is more or less standard. We have an unidentified number of hostile targets inside this house," she started before pointing at a large warehouse in the distance. "They have been kidnapping local citizens for the last few weeks, so be prepared for possible hostages. Also, note that we have not identified them as vampires yet, just something paranormal." Seras stopped and started to sniff in the air a bit. Suddenly, the smell of blood hit Jack like a truck, and he staggered backwards a step. His stomach growled and his eyes turned red for a moment. He had been living on mostly tomato-soup for the last week, since it was too freaky for him to drink blood just yet. No-one noticed the slight change however, for Seras had started talking again.

"There is a smell of blood in the air. Fresh and human. The hostage may still be alive, but be prepared for ghouls." Jack had regained his balance after the blood smell, and shuddered a bit at the thought of ghouls. He thought to himself that if he found any ghouls, he would kill them, even when ordered to just observe. Seras picked up the thought, but pretended not to. She realized that he needed a bit of revenge, even if it was just on random ghouls. Besides, he desperately needed the combat experience.

"Move out guys!" Seras said, picking up her cannons. She would use them, since the insides of the warehouse was most likely spacey, allowing the use of the Harconnen guns. She aimed down the barrel of the gun and fired a salvo at the door, blowing it straight off the hinges. Within moments, the well-trained soldiers were inside the building, searching for hostiles. However, when they got through the smokescreen created by the blast, they quickly noted that the warehouse had been refitted inside, and was now a veritable maze of corridors and hallways. Seras was forced to discard her cannons outside and fetch a BAERLKS instead.

_Strange…_ she thought. _Our common foes are rarely this…resourceful. Especially the FREAKs. _  
"Be on your guard guys, this might not be of the usual type," she warned over the comlink as the platoon spread out into different directions. Lagging behind was Jack, leisurely pacing behind Seras' squad. He wasn't here to do any shooting anyway, so why be up front, where there was a higher chance of getting mowed down by a machine-gun or something? As he walked through the hallway, he lagged further and further behind. He stopped now and then to inspect the corpses on the ground, left by the squad as it advanced. They were human. And if that wasn't odd enough, they were all wearing some kind of black robes. There were holding various weapons, mostly assault-weaponry. Jack briefly wondered where they had gotten hold of those when he heard a swishing sound behind him. He slowly turned around, only to spot one of the robed men pointing a gun at his face.

"Uh oh. Not good," Jack simply said.

"Indeed. Now, tell me where your squadleader is," the robed man said. His voice was odd. It sounded hissing and thin, as if his vocal chords were weak.

"Uhm… Over there…" Jack said, pointing towards where Seras had dissappeared to, trying to not reveal his fangs. Maybe this douche would take him for a normal soldier and let him go. Or at least, not splatter his brains all over the wall. Jack was fairly confident that he wouldn't survive that just yet. Luckily for Jack, he didn't shoot him. Instead, he suddenly moved closer, then slammed the butt of the gun straight into Jack's face, knocking him out. Or at least, that was the plan. Jack didn't pass out, but he pretended to, and collapsed backwards, into a pile of bodies. As the robed man turned to stalk after Seras and the squad, Jack slowly rose to his feet, trying not to alert the man. He slowly got his guns out, and took aim at the man as he walked down the hallway.

The sound of the first shot echoed down the hallway, quickly followed by three more. The first shot hit the man straight in the back of his head, practically exploding it. The next two missed, but the fourth hit him in the chest.

"He-hey! Headshot on my first kill! Lucky shot, but still," Jack said. He had momentarily forgotten that it was a real living man he had just shot to death, thinking of it more like a game. He ran over to the man's corpse, intent on looting it for any signs on who he was, and why he was there.

_Why not? _He thought._ When I'm here, I can at least check if I can find anything useful. Maybe some cash too. The pay sucks at Hellsing…_

But, before he could get that far, he was suddenly slammed into the wall. Something had hit him in the side, sending him flying to the other side of the corridor, making him drop one his guns and knocking him silly. As the stars in his eyes began to fade, he found himself staring into a face. However, it didn't look like a normal face; the skin was gray and stretched, giving the illusion that the face was a cranium, momentarily stunning Jack. The eyes were sunken and hollow, further enhancing the image.

"What the…?" he mumbled. But then, he got a better look on what was standing over him. The man standing over him was clad in robes, just as the other men here, but more elaborate. His arms, protruding from the robes, were skinny and frail-looking, and his whispy black hair clung to his skull. The things nose was gone, and only two holes were left. All in all, the man looked like a shriveled up corpse than anything else.

_What the hell is that? _Jack thought, completely shocked. As a response, the thing let out a hiss and lifted up Jack, throwing him straight through the wall before jumping through the hole after him. Jack was still disoriented after the 'trip' through the wall, but he managed to gather that he was in some kind of shrine. Apparently, it was dedicated to… death? Jack flipped around and lifted his gun, barely managing to fire at the approaching enemy before it lunged at him. The bullet slammed straight into its chest, apparently hitting a major vein, since gray-brownish blood sprayed out of the wound. The dead thing gave away a sound that sounded like the bastard child of a whimper and a hiss, before staggering backwards and collapsing into the rubble left by Jack's trip through the wall.

Jack slowly got to his feet, momentarily stunned. He walked over to the limp form, and inspected the wound for a short while, before turning to the shrine. This was definitely worth inspecting. But before he could do anything more than take a quick look at the statue sitting on the altar, a cold and unbelievably stinky breath came down his neck. It smelled like death. Jack turned around, and stood face to face with the thing. Again.

"Oh shit," he simply said. The thing had regenerated its wound, and was now pissed beyond comparison. Before Jack could react, he brought his arm back, then shot it forward, straight into Jack's gut, punching a hole through most of his stomach. The hand barely missed Jack's spine and instead crunched through a rib or two, exiting Jack's body on the other side. Jack's brain was sledgehammered with the sensation of immense pain, and he numbly grabbed the seemingly frail arm, mostly as a reflex. His eyes rolled wildly, and the pain threatened to overwhelm him, but he forced his mind back to reality. If he passed out here, he would most likely die. Not that he had a chance anyway, but at least he wanted to die fighting.

Jack's right arm, still holding the gun, shakily lifted and pointed the weapon into the beast's chest and pumped five rounds into it. Jack only stopped firing because he was out of ammo. The thing jerked with each silver bullet, which sent shivers of agony shooting through Jack's spine, and he nearly fainted again. He managed to stick to reality, however.

The vampire and the monster stood there for several agonizing seconds as the obviously more experienced opponent pushed out the bullets from its chest and regenerated, still with its right hand inside Jack's stomach, which had ever so slowly begun to heal. Jack was still pointing the now useless gun against the man's chest, concentrating too much on staying conscious rather than bothering to move the arm. The thing grinned, revealing long wicked fangs, brought up his left arm and slowly put it on top of the Desert Eagle's barrel. A screeching sound was heard as it squeezed down on the weapon, deforming the barrel into something similar to a clump of metallic putty.

"Oh….fuck…" Jack mumbled through the haze of pain. The thing, apparently some sort of vampire, grinned even wider, then suddenly brought his right arm sideways. Jack, still impaled on it, was thrown halfway across the room as he slid off the blood-slick arm, ending up in a pile of rubble on the floor, created by him slamming into the wall with the force of a two-ton truck driving 40 km/h.

The vampire approached the limp form on the ground. Now their roles had been reversed. That first of those thrice-cursed silver bullets of his had barely missed his heart, which had stunned him. Now it was payback time. It stalked over to the limp vampire, then bent over to lift him up by the throat. Jack had been slowly regenerating, and was not bleeding as much anymore, but his innards were still hanging outside the stomach. He had passed out from the crash, and was just now regaining his senses. The thing hissed, then smashed his fist straight into Jack`s face, breaking his jawbone. He continued to pummel him for a while, breaking several ribs and his nose, before throwing Jack across the room with all the might he could muster. A sickening crack was heard as Jack crashed through the wooden outside of the wall only to smash against a brick wall on the other side.

The vampire stalked forward, intent on finishing the job. He planned on chrushing the fledgling vampire's skull, and if that didn't do the job, rip out his heart. However, before he arrived at the pile of rubble, a low growl reached its ears. It whirled around, expecting to see an enemy, or maybe the senior vampire, his Master, that had been residing here. Nothing presented itself, and he cautiously sniffed the air. The only thing he could smell was that annoyingly resilient vampire… But wait. The scent…It was changing. Instead of expelling horomones that were consistent with the feeling of pain and hopelessness, it was now radiating… fury?

He turned back towards the rubble containing the vampire. Instead of being a limp form there, the vampire had risen to stand first shakily, then more firmly, on its feet. Its left arm was broken, a bone extending out of it, and the gut wound was still large, nose and jawbone still broken, in addition to countless small cuts and slices caused by the crashes into various walls. The vampire… It didn't look like it had before. Instead of an insecure rookie, the being standing before him exuded the air of a seasoned warrior. Shadows seemed to cling to it as it growled loudly. It grabbed its left arm with its right, and with a sickening crunch forced it back into place so that it could start healing properly. It only winced slightly. It turned around, ripped out two meter-long pipes out of the wall, before turning back, brandishing the metal pipes as a pair of swords.

With a roar of pure rage, the vampire…no, monstrosity, charged towards him. The first contact between the two combatants was the right pipe slamming into the man's right arm with inhuman strength, utterly crushing it. The second was the left pipe connecting with the chest, going right under the raised arm. It broke three ribs, and left a bloody dent in the thing's upper body before being retracted. Suddenly, the vampire spun around and down, and the two pipes connected with the thing's knees, pulverizing them, forcing him to the ground. With a flurry of blows, the vampire methodically started to slam the other vampire into submission, hitting his foe so hard the blunt weapons started to cut slightly. It was an unstoppable monster, and continued to pummel the poor thing until he was barely alive, despite the impressive vampiric resilience.

Stepping back, the vampire panted for breath, watching the limp form on the floor before him. With one surge of strength, the vampire smashed both pipes, which had been deformed into just long clumps of steel, right into his opponents skull, crushing it utterly. As the vampire died, it crumbled to dust, leaving only the shattered skull.

Jack staggered backwards, exhausted beyond comparison. He had no idea what had just happened. Suddenly, as he had been lying in the pile of rubble, a seething, burning rage had built up inside him. His strength had returned tenfold, and his agony seemed like just a mosquito-bite. He had pummeled the hostile vampire to death with a pair of steel pipes, ripped out from a wall. But now, the energy faded, and the pain returned, even greater than before. He couldn't take it anymore, and slowly let himself slide down the wall, and passed out leaning on it, still clutching the pipes, which had finger-marks on them.

Seras swore like a drunken sailor, startling several soldiers close by. When she and her squad had been stalking the corridors of the warehouse, they had encountered a large vampire, but not a Nosferatu, who had promptly ripped open three men before engaging Seras in close-combat. She had won without too many problems. Apparently, the thing had no idea how to fight another full-blood vampire, even though it had obviously fought FREAKs before. Seras' shape-shifting had startled it long enough for Seras to probe its mind for some clues on what was going on. She caught glimpses of what had been going on in the building the last few weeks, horrible images of human sacrifice. Apparently, there had been two of them there, who had been revered as gods by the humans the Hellsing soldiers had fought all over the building. However, Seras had only found and dispatched one of them. The other one, the younger one, was still on the loose. And, she had lost Jack.

Seras dusted off the ash from the dead vampire, and immediately ordered her squad to start searching for the other one. She broke off from her squad, running in Jack's direction, having found him with her mind. He was unconscious, which had unsettled her.

_Damnit, I can't loose him on the first mission! Integra`ll stake me to death for sure…._ she thought as she raced through a few walls, phasing as she ran. Finally, she arrived in the room where Jack was supposed to be. What she saw stunned her. The room itself was littered with ritual objects, and in one corner, something that looked like human remains were rotting. In the middle of the room, a large bloody altar was standing. However, three of the walls were ruined, and a spot of ash shaped like a man was on the floor by the altar.

Then, she spotted Jack. He was slumped against the one remaining wall, and he was holding two long bloodied pieces of metal, which might have been metal pipes once. His guts were trying to drag themselves into his stomach again, hanging mostly outside a large hole in his stomach, though the hole was slowly shrinking. His left arm had a large gash in it, and Seras could glimpse bone underneath. His jawbone and nose both seemed odd, as if they had been broken. Seras touched his jawbone, and it moved in odd ways, in addition to a slight crunching sound. It was broken alright. In addition to this, he had numerous small cuts all over his body.

Seras kneeled beside Jack, taking measure of his injuries. None of them were fatal, but they had to hurt like hell. Seras quickly stuffed Jack's guts inside him again, trying not to think of what she was doing, before she gathered him up and started carrying him outside while informing the soldiers over the comlink that she had found both Jack and the other hostile vamp.

"So… What really happened in there?" Seras asked. She had returned to the Hellsing Mansion with the unconscious Jack and dropped him off in the medical ward. The resident doctor, Alexander Ciel, commented that the Rookie had already visited him as many times as all the other vampires combined. A moment earlier, Seras had delivered her report to Integra, and Alucard said he knew what had happened to Jack.

"He entered a form of berserker-mode. It is probably one of his characteristic vampiric abilities. In that state, he doesn't feel pain, and his strength is increased. Also, he will not stop attacking until the target is dead or he himself dies. Of course, you will be able to rein him in, Master. Or, if necessary, direct his wrath."

"Will he be dangerous in this…berserker state?" Integra implored. If he was a potential danger to her men, she would be forced to either seal his powers away, or possibly put him down.

"No. His mind is still in full control over his actions, and therefore he will recognize allies."

"Good." Integra said. She thought about today's finds in the ware-house. A cult dedicated to vampires? This wasn't good. Not only had there been a human-sacrificing cult in there, but two real vampires as well. They weren't of the Nosferatu bloodline, obviously, but rather from the Necrarchs. They were rare, and finding two at once was alarming.

"But, master… If this berserker-state Jack is in is a vampiric ability, doesn't that mean you can do it too? Since we're your descendants? And, is my…bloodlust-mode the same thing?" Seras wondered.

"Hehehe… Yes, I can also enter the same kind of berserker-mode. However, I haven`t needed to use it for centuries. Your bloodlust-mode is not the same, however. It is a weaker version, especially since you are not in complete control over your own actions."

"Oh." Seras sat down in the sofa inside Integra's office, pondering tonight's mission, especially Jack's actions. Seras didn't know if he had attacked the Necrarch by himself, or if it had attacked him first, and depending on which it was, he might get punished. He had been ordered to just observe, after all.

After some time, she decided to not think about it anymore. When Jack woke up tomorrow they'd find out anyway.


End file.
